As processes and contexts for educating students alter, principals are expected to shift their leadership styles to effectively cultivate school climates that proactively accelerate student academic success. Previous models of educational leadership have shown positive results under certain circumstances, but fail to consistently produce a recurring link from a leadership platform to student academic success.
This study explored the amalgamated influence of instruction, collaboration and parental involvement on the teachers’ perceptions of school climate through a newly conceptualized networked leadership model. Within such a model, how the principal instructionally leads, collaborates, and secures parental involvement to leverage gains in a positive school climate guides this inquiry. This study predicts an increase in the measure of networked leadership is positively associated with an increase in the teachers’ perceptions of school climate.
The target population for this study consisted of public school elementary principals and teachers across the United States of America who were identified to participate in the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2010). The sample identified for this study consisted of 2,761 public elementary principals and 10,293 teachers. Items on the SASS allowed the researcher to determine the principal’s degree of focus on instruction, teacher collaboration, and parental involvement, as well as the teachers’ perceptions of the school climate. The primary statistical analysis used for this model was multiple linear regression using hierarchical forced entry to better understand how each of the specific constructs within the networked leadership model impacts school climate.
Results indicate that the principal’s engagement in a networked approach to leadership had a significantly positive influence on student academic success. However, the correlation was weak (r = .072, p < .05). Likewise, when the principal’s focus on instruction is entered into the model alone, it is positively correlated (r = .103, p < .01) with the teachers’ perceptions of school climate. The principal’s influence on collaboration and parental involvement did not display significant correlations with the teachers’ perceptions of school climate.
While it initially appeared that the networked leadership approach held promise to leverage positive influences on teachers’ perception of school climate, further analysis revealed that the construct of instruction was predominantly impacting significance. When the individual constructs were parceled out, only the construct of instruction retained significance. However, these results must be tempered with the fact that this significance is weak and the entire model only accounts for 3.1% of the variability in school climate.
The limited application and statistical significance of the results should not diminish interest in future configurations of networked leadership. The foundation of this concept is a viable approach to school leadership. The notion of networked leadership needs to be explored using appropriate instrumentation and research to identify unique attributes and combinations of actions that may ultimately lead to a stout leadership model. Further theorization of networked leadership may yield better research and result in outcomes that facilitate leadership development and implementation in the field of education and principal preparation.